By the 1960s, the founder's sons had taken over the business, and there were over 200 locations in Germany. The chain's name was shortened from Albrecht Discount — the founder's name was Anna Albrecht — to Aldi.

The store's first US location opened in 1976 in southeastern Iowa, but the chain is currently enjoying an upswing in popularity stateside.

Today, Aldi has about 1,700 stores in the US, and plans to open 800 more by 2022.

Since we know the chain has plenty of great buys, we took a trip to one of New York City's two Aldi locations to see what it's like to shop there. Keep scrolling to see our experience.

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Aldi currently has two stores in New York City, one in the Bronx and one in Harlem, located in the East River Plaza shopping center. We visited the Harlem location.

We noticed that although Aldi sells big-name brands, the store also sells almost all items under its in-house brands. This party mix looked a lot like Chex Mix, but was instead branded as Clancy's.

These in-house brands are what allows Aldi to keep its prices so low. We were shocked to see that we could get a box of six granola bars for under $2.

Granola bars.
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According to Reuters, in an effort to compete with Wal-Mart and other low-priced chains, Aldi is focusing on its in-house brands and planning to sell more goods under these brands.

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Another strategy that the store uses to cut costs is keeping products in the original packaging they're shipped in. This saves employees from having to unpack boxes and place products individually on shelves.

Recently, Aldi has been ramping up its number of organic products and rolling out a new design for its stores: changes the chain hopes will put it on the same level as Whole Foods.

It looked like the changes hadn't hit the store we visited though. The displays — at least at this location — looked somewhat haphazard and not exactly neat or enticing.

The fruit display.
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During our exploration we passed a freezer that was completely empty...

An empty freezer.
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... as well as an aisle filled with random items like clocks, lamps...

The miscellaneous aisle.
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... children's books, lawn chairs, and pillows. Aldi's mix of products made it seem like the chain was trying to be a combination of both Whole Foods and Walmart.

The miscellaneous aisle.
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We also came across some intriguing food products that we hadn't seen in many other grocery chains in the area, like these frozen White Castle sliders.

Frozen White Castle sliders.
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Hostess Ding Dongs were listed as a "limited time, premium buy."

Hostess Ding Dongs.
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The store seemed to be in a full fall mode, with a freezer devoted to pumpkin ice cream and pies.

Frozen pumpkin dessert foods.
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And for any shoppers looking to embrace the chain's heritage — and their inner German — there was frozen pork schnitzel...

Frozen pork schnitzel.
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... and cheese spätzle to go with it. Both products are from the store's Deutsche Küche brand, which translates to German cuisine.

Cheese spätzle.
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As we approached the end of our tour, we found the non-food items that Aldi sells, like laundry detergent and pet supplies.

Laundry detergent and pet supplies.
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There was a whole section dedicated to toiletries as well.

Toiletries.
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All in all, we can see why people are obsessed with the chain. What struck us the most about our Aldi shopping experience was its prices.

The store.
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Assuming that the store's in-house brand products taste the same as the big-name brand products, we would definitely shop here. It may not be the prettiest of grocery stores, but it's certainly one of the most cost-effective.